German indirect vehicles see 50% rise to €18.5bn - study

Money

Listed sector inflows were softer in fourth quarter, with equity placements reaching only €500m, due to a combination of challenging markets and major players “caught up in merger hustle,” as Barkow described it in the report.

German indirect real estate investing vehicles saw inflows at record levels in 2015, shows a new study by Düsseldorf-based capital market research specialists Akselrod Barkow Consulting.

Indirect vehicles surveyed include listed real estate, institutional open-ended funds (OEFs), and public open-ended funds. Closed-end funds were specifically not included, say the researchers due to lack of representative data.

Net capital inflows into the indirect vehicles were €18.5bn, up by 50% on 2014, a post-crisis record, and the second best year ever for indirect capital flows, following the year 2002, which saw inflows of €17.3bn. Last year's full year inflows into the listed sector totalled €6.3bn, 37% higher than in 2014 and an equity placement record for the third year in succession.

Listed sector inflows were softer in fourth quarter, with equity placements reaching only €500m, due to a combination of challenging markets and major players “caught up in merger hustle,” as Barkow described it in the report.

Net inflows into open-ended property funds came to €3.6bn over the year, four times higher than in 2014, and with some €1bn being placed in the fourth quarter alone. Adjusting for repayments of frozen funds brings net inflows to north of €5bn. “Though reaching pre-crisis levels of up to €15bn annually can be seen as an unlikely scenario at present, public GOEPFs seem fully back on track,” said the report.

Germany's largest listed housing company Vonovia had issued a €14bn takeover bid for Berlin-based Deutsche Wohnen, after the latter announced a merger with smaller peer LEG. Both transactions failed, with Deutsche Wohnen withdrawing its offer after the hostile Vonovia bid. Vonovia failed to reach the minimum 50% acceptance in February, after it succeeded in gaining control of only 30.4% of Deutsche Wohnen shares.